Three years ago, I opened my laptop on a brisk Sunday night in Denver, Colorado. I was supposed to be preparing for the week, pulling together some reports that my boss wanted in his hands by 8AM the following morning. But instead of working through the necessary Excel spreadsheets, I was thinking about cupcakes.
I was thinking about how, in college, I would always bake a box of Funfetti cupcakes to de-stress from whatever paper or final I was worrying about and distribute them to my classmates the next day. How the last decent cupcake I’d had was in London, when I’d stopped inside a bakery in Kensington to buy a cup of coffee and instead fortuitously discovered some of the best cupcakes I’d ever eaten in my life.
I was also thinking about how much I hated my job, what a mistake it was to move Erlend and myself to a city where we didn’t know anybody, and how, as a girl who’d spent most of her life living in places where the ocean was an hour or less away, I hated living high up in the mountains where water boiled at a different temperature and the air was so thin and dry that it caused me to feel lightheaded if I moved too quickly (true story — I’m just not built for the mountains).
So at that point, sitting at my cheap Ikea dining table with all that unhappiness and regret and loneliness crushing down on me, I did what I always do when I’m stressed out — I started writing.
Lots of people come to this blog for many reasons, though the majority come for the recipes and (hopefully) the pictures. I’m sure that there are plenty visitors who probably scroll through the blocks of text on my blog, either skimming through my writing or ignoring it completely until they reach the coveted recipe. But the truth is, Hummingbird High didn’t start out as a food blog, a baking blog, or whatever it gets categorized as today — it started out as just another diary. A way to distract myself from the misery of my job; a way to keep in touch with the friends I’d so foolishly moved myself away from.
But at that point, I knew enough about the internet to know that privacy was an illusion, and I worried that my relatively new employers and old college frenemies would find the blog with negative consequences. But even if that weren’t a concern, I didn’t want to write about my depression. I didn’t want my friends in Portland, San Francisco, and London to worry about me, especially since so many of them had been confused by my move to Denver in the first place. So instead I wrote about a neutral topic that I was more than familiar with, one that I knew would remind my friends of a happy me: cupcakes. I wrote about what it was like to bake in high-altitude, and that time I tried making my favorite and highly-dependable vanilla cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook only to be completely blindsided when it failed miserably.
At the time, I had no idea that it would eventually turn into… well, this. I wasn’t new to blogging, by any means. Throughout the years, there were many half-hearted attempts at other blogs — a blog dedicated to bicycles and riding my bike that lasted about three months, another blog about the strange, strange period in my life when I lived in the Philippines, and another one about my move to San Francisco that only ever amounted to three entries.
But in that period of unhappiness, this blog became my lifeboat. At first, it was just how I communicated with the friends I’d left behind in the cities that I missed and longed for. And then, surprisingly, it allowed me to discover that I actually had a creative bone in my body even after years of maths and economics studies, even after 14 hour workdays at a job I hated. Eventually, it became my purpose and a much-needed anchor in a city and a job that I felt so disconnected from. Talking about baking and eating desserts allowed me to pretend that things were okay until they were actually, really, and truly okay again.
So to celebrate the three years, I figured I’d go back to the beginning. I frequently mention that the first thing I ever baked was a batch of Funfetti cupcakes from a box mix in my college dorm’s kitchen; this is true. But I also began this very blog with a box of Funfetti cake mix as well. This time, after all those years, it’s time to make the cake from scratch:
For the homemade Funfetti cake, I used this wonderful recipe on Food52 by one of my blogger heroes, Molly from My Name is Yeh. Molly spent weeks researching the best kind of cake base, ingredients and sprinkles to make Funfetti cake from scratch at home, and let me tell you — her work really paid off. This cake was exactly like the box mix, but minus the artificial taste that cake mix tends to have from all the weird, un-pronouncable chemicals used to make it last as long as possible. I made almost no alterations from her recipe, with the exception of using real vanilla extract (probably why my cake didn’t turn out as white as it could have) and an additional half teaspoon of ground vanilla bean powder (my new favorite ingredient) to make it as vanilla-y as I could.
And of course, I slathered the cake with this unstoppable chocolate frosting:
This isn’t the sophisticated and classy chocolate ganache frosting that you see on this yellow cake and these chocolate crème fraîche-topped cupcakes, nope. Those recipes use fancy dark chocolate, with full cream and no sugar… and while I love all those things, it’s not really the kind of frosting you want on a funfetti cake.
Instead, you want THIS chocolate frosting. This is THE chocolate frosting of your childhood — the kind that causes tantrums because you would have happily eaten spoonfuls of it had your mom not wrestled the bowl away from you. The secret? Lots of powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and a touch of cream cheese. Because believe me, once you throw a little cream cheese in your chocolate frosting, it’s hard to go back.
I know that it’s quite the epic cake, but it’s one that really is suited for the occasion. I still remember the elation I felt from the first comment on my blog from a person I didn’t know, the pride I felt when my first picture was featured on Foodgawker, the delight from my first press mentions and the first time I saw one of my pictures on Pinterest that wasn’t pinned by me. During those lonely months in Denver, you guys are what helped me get on my feet again. Thanks for visiting, reading and baking along with me.
Some baker’s notes:
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- Ground vanilla bean powder is available online, specialty spice shops and in the bulk spice sections of fancy grocery stores like Whole Foods. If you can’t find it/justify the expense, feel free to omit the recipe, but your cake will likely be less vanilla-y than mine.
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- I used pure vanilla bourbon extract, which gave my cake a slightly yellow color. For a whiter cake, substitute pure vanilla extract for McCormick’s Clear Imitation Vanilla. McCormick’s will also give your funfetti cake a more box mix-y taste.
- As Molly’s research shows, for best results, use artificially dyed store-bought sprinkles! If you’re hardcore and/or want to pick your own colors, you can also use my recipe for homemade sprinkles, but be sure to make bright, bright, BRIGHT colors that pop out against the white cake.
Homemade Funfetti Cake with THE Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
For the Funfetti Cake
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract (see baker's notes)
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder (optional, see baker's notes)
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon brightly colored sprinkles (see baker's notes), divided into 2/3 cup and 1 tablespoon portions
For THE Chocolate Frosting
(makes around 3 cups, enough for one 8-inch cake)
- 3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
- 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon malt powder (optional)
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
Instructions
For the Funfetti Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 (F). Prepare two 8-inch cake pans by spraying liberally with cooking spray and lining the bottom of each pan with parchment circles. Lightly spray the parchment.
- In the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 1 cup unsalted butter and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar and cream on medium-high speed for at least 5 minutes, until light, fluffy and doubled in volume. Lower the mixer speed to its slowest setting and add 4 large egg whites, one at a time, only adding the next one until the previous egg white has been fully incorporated. In a small liquid measuring cup, whisk together 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract and slowly stream into the egg mixture until fully incorporated. Turn off the mixer.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 1/2 cups cake flour, 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder, and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt. With the mixer running on low, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with adding 1 cup whole milk in two additions, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix on low speed until just incorporated — be careful not to overmix! It’s okay to have one or two flour streaks left at this point.
- Once you have a smooth batter, use a rubber spatula to fold in 2/3 cup of sprinkles. Be careful not to overmix! Again, just fold until the sprinkles are evenly incorporated throughout the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans, and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sprinkles over the top of each cake. Transfer the pans to the preheated oven and bake the cakes for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the tops of each cake bounce when gently poked with a finger.
- When the cakes are finished, transfer the cakes to a wire rack. Allow to cool in pans for 15 minutes, before turning out of the pans to cool completely. Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting.
For THE Chocolate Frosting
- In the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 3 ounces cream cheese and 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract. Beat the cream cheese and vanilla together on low speed until smooth. Increase the mixer speed to high. Add 1 stick unsalted butter and beat until incorporated, using a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl as necessary, about 1 minute.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder and 2 teaspoons light corn syrup. Add 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon malt powder (if using) until smooth. Add 3 tablespoons milk, one tablespoon at a time, beating until the milk is fully incorporated. Once the milk is fully incorporated, turn the mixer to its highest speed and beat for no longer than 1 minute, until the frosting is light, fluffy and has achieved a spreadable consistency. Be careful not to overbeat, or the frosting will be too liquidy — do not beat for more than a minute!
Cri says
Happy birthday to your blog and what a wonderful cake 🙂 I will bake it for my son, I am sure he will adore it. Yes, we do come over here for all sorts of different reasons, but I actually enjoy every tiny bit of your posts (your stories, your baking tips, your pictures and oh-yes the wonderful recipes). Thank you so much for sharing!
Unknown says
ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh happy blogoversary, woman!!!!!!!!!!! this post is wonderful. i love reading about the beginning of your blog… i can't believe it's only been three years! here's to many more sweet and delicious years 🙂 and this cake. i need that frosting. and vanilla bean powder, what is that wizardry?! i must get my hands on some. your words made me blush. big hugs to you, michelle!!!
michelle lopez says
vanilla bean powder = secret ingredient. it's like MSG for dessert. thanks for the awesome funfetti recipe!
Tracy says
Congrats Lopez! Proud to see how far you've come over the years, in the blog and in life.
Sara | Cake Over Steak says
OMG I finally figured out how to comment on your blog! Happy Blog Birthday! It was fun for me to read about the beginnings of your site. And for the record, I come here for both the recipes AND your writing. Keep it up.
michelle lopez says
ugh, annoyed that it's been a problem for so long… but anyway, thanks for trying! YAY! so glad you figured it out.
Unknown says
Congratulations! And what a great cake to celebrate.
I love your writing and NEVER just scroll to the recipe 😉
Thanks for sharing
Kimberly
Natalie says
Love love love this post. I've been digging through your archives ever since the Blue Hour event and agree with commenters above – I enjoy reading every bit of your posts, not just the recipes 🙂 Congrats on the 3-year blogaversary! Can't wait to see what the next year brings!
michelle lopez says
aww shucks natalie, you're making me blush. see you at the next blogger event!
Graham Blackall says
Happy third! Thanks for THE frosting! 🙂
Rachel @ Love, Rachel says
I love the story! I'm so glad you didn't blog about bikes. I love sweets must better! Congrats on 3 years and here's to many more!
Anonymous says
This cake is so beautiful Michelle, I also love the way you've written this post! Happy 3rd blogaversary!! You're photos are so beautiful and your recipes are nothing short of inspiring!
Unknown says
I come here for your words mostly.. Plus the pictures always make me drool
london bakes says
Happy blog birthday! Every time I come here, I'm so in awe of what you've created it and your constant creativity and inspiration. Here's to many more cake-filled years!
Maryna Krasnozhon says
I really like EVERYTHING about your blog. not only recipes, because without your writting Hummingbird High would have been what it is)
Unknown says
Michelle!!! One of the reasons I LOVE your blog is that your writing always feels so honest. And this post particularly struck a chord with me because starting my blog kind of felt like a life raft that I hung onto post-college. I adore that you're coming full circle with FUNFETTI because yum!!!! That Molly. I knew as soon as I saw her cake that it was her recipe–sign of a good recipe when your product turns out exactly like the picture, eh? The sour cream chocolate frosting–UGH. Spoon + mouth please. Congrats on 3 amazing years, lovely lady!!!
Anonymous says
Ahhh Happy blog birthday, Michelle! With all the amazing recipes (and photos!) you post and the stories you've shared on this blog, it's made it one of my favorites. I only wish I lived near Portland so I'd have an excuse to meet you (I feel like based on your stories that we'd get along), but I just wanted to say thanks for writing this awesome blog!
Jade Sheldon says
Happiest of blog birthdays! I keep coming back and staring at this perfect cake…
Unknown says
Congratulations! I love your blog to death I don't know what Id do without it. I hope you continue sharing more amazing stories and recipes with your readers!
Erin - Bakery Bingo says
Congratulations Michelle!! I am constantly impressed with your blog, the stories, recipes and of course the photos! You do an outstanding job. I know I say this a lot but I'm in awe how you balance this with work, Crossfit and General life. Keep up the good work!
michelle. says
Happy 3 year! All the work you have poured into this blog really shows. Photography, writing, baking projects–all only getting more exquisite with time.
Anonymous says
Congratulations! I've always dreamed of a cake like this, yum!
Anonymous says
As a new blogger, I love reading about the blog-beginnings of my favourite blogs. It's inspiring to hear, in retrospect, about the reasons that draw others to blogging, the confusing pieces of life that sometimes we don't know how to articulate at the time, and to think of how when a blog is born, you never know where it'll go. Even though I don't think I've ever commented here, your blog is such a staple to me in the world of cake recipes that I can't believe you've only been blogging for three years. Happy blog birthday!
Lynna says
Happy 3 years!!! I come here for a everything! Your stories, the recipes, and the photos. The photos and recipes caught my attention first, since, I mean, food! LOL. But, I love reading your life stories as well. So keep everything coming just the way you do it. This look looks great and I love how you made like an ode to your first baked item through this post. 🙂
Sini says
Happy three years of blogging!! You've created such a wonderful space with thoughtful stories, gorgeous photography, and carefully tested (baker's notes!) and delicious recipes. I hope we will be able to enjoy your creative and kind spirit for many years to come. Cheers to you, Hummingbird High, and this fun funfetti cake! xx
Beth says
About to try THE frosting! Can you let me know if this can be made a day ahead? I worried when I saw that it could be liquidy if whipped too long, and thought I should ask before I have a disaster tomorrow on my son’s birthday!! Thanks 🙂
Michelle says
Are you talking about the cake as a whole, or just the frosting? Both can be made a day ahead, but if you’re just planning on using the frosting, I recommend making it the day of… if you make it ahead you’ll need to rewhip it to get it back into a creamy texture that’s easier to work with, so you’ll end up doing double work!